It's a peculiar painting.

The tone of the picture is bright, the pen is direct, and the bright lines outline the graceful figure of a ** girl. The girl was lying on a bright red couch with her head tilted, her face split in half, black lines connecting her nose and mouth from the background above her forehead.

If you look closely, you will find that this is a combination of half side face and half front face. This combination gives the picture a certain sense of three-dimensionality, which is also a common technique used by Picasso.

The strangest thing is the girl's hand, judging by the color, fatness, and shape, it is obvious that it is not a human hand. And what's even more interesting is that she has six fingers on each hand.

"I bought this painting from the United States last Christmas." Xia Wenyuan didn't know why Aoki suddenly asked about this, but after he came out of the dream, he already had a lot of trust in Aoki, "I've been hanging here since I bought it." ”

Aoki approached the picture, and the tip of his nose almost touched the paint. Generally speaking, it is very rude to look at a painting in this way, and it is easy to break the painting, and even if it does not touch, the moisture exhaled from the mouth is a serious injury to the oil painting, which is already difficult to preserve.

Wu Lixia knew that Xia Wenyuan loved this painting very much, and reminded euphemistically: "This painting cost 150 million US dollars, and it shouldn't have been hung directly on the wall like this." ”

"Oh, I see." Aoki was a little further away from the painting, but it still seemed that he was worried that he would touch the paint off at any moment, "You must like this painting very much." ”

"Of course." Xia Wenyuan said, "I don't need to invest in art to earn the difference, if I don't really like it, I won't spend so much money to buy an oil painting to hang in my study and look at it every day." ”

"Can you tell me why you like this painting so much? It can be seen from the style of the study and the collection of books that you still prefer oriental aesthetics. If the painting downstairs is meant to match the fireplace, this one in your study is a strange one. Aoki asked.

"Sir's discernment! It is also this painting that has a relationship with me. ”

Xia Wenyuan praised Aoki, and then talked about the process of buying his paintings.

"Last year I was invited to a charity auction in the United States, and I saw this painting of Picasso's Dream in the VIP preview before the sale. To be honest, I don't know much about Western art and rarely collect it. But I liked it the first time I saw it. It had a very familiar feel to me, as if I had seen it somewhere. ”

"I'm sure I've seen a picture of such a famous painting on the Internet or somewhere!" Aoki said.

Xia Wenyuan said: "No, it's not that familiar, it's a feeling of 'long time gone', as if meeting a long-lost relative." ”

Aoki suddenly remembered the symbol of the hourglass of time, and at that time he also had a feeling of "long time gone", so he could understand Xia Wenyuan's feelings very well. But he can be sure that he is inextricably linked to that symbol, and what does Xia Wenyuan have to do with a famous oil painting?

It's impossible to see a painting for no reason and "haven't seen it for a long time"!

"And then you bought it?"

"Of course not." Xia Wenyuan said, "I am a businessman, I will not buy a work of art worth more than 100 million dollars because of a momentary emotional impulse that I don't know how to really appreciate, you know, 100 million dollars can be invested in a pretty good Hollywood movie, if it is used to support the young people in the family, you can set up more than 10 start-up companies." ”

Aoki doesn't have much idea about money, especially dollars, but he can do simple arithmetic problems. What is $100 million? It is the income of a taxi driver who has been driving a car continuously for 5,000 years; It's like spending behind the bar for 10 million cocktails to sell for; Even if the women in the nameless alley at the entrance of Liuying Lane do a businessless business, they have to work for five hundred years to earn it by splitting their legs to receive thirty men every day.

"Then what prompted you to buy it?" Aoki asked.

Xia Wenyuan said: "You know that fate is a wonderful thing. I didn't plan to bid at the auction because I had a slight fluctuation in my heart at the time, but at the reception that night, Ronald Cohen, the president of the Dream Foundation, who was the owner of the painting, was sitting next to me. He told me the ins and outs of this painting in detail, and I realized how much this painting had to do with me. ”

"I was born in 1932 and this painting was created by Mr. Picasso in 1932. That year, my mother gave birth to me in the midst of war. It may be a coincidence, but there are more coincidences. Picasso's painting is of his lover Teresa, who should have painted many portraits of Teresa, but only this one is the most perfect. ”

"In 1927, they met at the train station, and Picasso was a full thirty years older than Theresa. My father and my mother also met in 1927, and they were thirty years apart. At that time, my father was a silk merchant, and his family was well-known and well-known. My mother, who was a student at a national university, was injured by the repressive military police during a student march, and my father rescued her, and so I was born. The year I was born coincided with the outbreak of the Songhu Anti-Japanese War, and my father went to the front line with the materials he had raised, but unfortunately disappeared in the war. My mother was so sick that by the time my father returned, the evergreen on her grave had already bloomed. ”

"Cohen listened to my story and said that this painting exists for me. He suggested that I buy the painting. As a sign of respect for my father and mother, he was willing to sell it to me at a very good price. As you know, he bought the painting from Las Vegas tycoon Michael Jones for $155,500, and the price he offered me that day was only $5 million over the original price. ”

"Even though there are so many coincidences that make my heart flutter and the price is fair enough, I still won't buy it. As a qualified family manager, every decision I make has the potential to affect the fate of my family, so I have to fully restrain my inflated desires, even if the business doesn't seem to be a loss. ”

"It wasn't until after the dinner, when Mr. Cohen invited me to look at the painting up close again, that I finally knew where the feeling of déjà vu that I had when I first saw it — the girl in the picture was in exactly the same pose as in a photograph my daughter had taken."

"The more I look at her, the more I think she looks like my daughter Xiaoxiao. I even had a thought in my heart - she was my daughter, and this painting was painted by the artist for my daughter. ”

So, I made up my mind to buy the painting. I begged Cohen to sell me the painting, and I thought he was going to make a big deal, but when he heard about my daughter, he readily lowered it to me by another five million dollars. ”

"I beg your pardon," Aoki thought the coincidences were too bizarre, "can you show me that picture of your daughter?" ”

Xia Wenyuan seemed a little hesitant, glanced at Wu Lixia, and then nodded.

Wu Lixia took out a photo album from a drawer on her desk and pulled out a photo from it.

In the photo, a beautiful young woman leans back on a red sofa with her eyes closed, which is indeed a little similar to the oil painting on the wall.

Aoki looked at the photo, scratching his messy hair, embarrassed face, and his expression looked a little strange: Isn't this a beautiful young mother?

"Excuse me, where is your daughter now?"

Xia Wenyuan suddenly showed a sad look on his face: "Xiaoxiao, she died five years ago. ”